Speaker 1: Welcome to All the Smoke, a production of The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and our Heart Radio and partnership with Showtime. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to another edition and all the Smoke out here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Jack was good, was good and a very
Speaker 1: special guest today. Many be careful how you throw very
Speaker 1: special legendary you say legendary Emmy Award winning one of
Speaker 1: the most respected voices in our prints. Yeah, someone we
Speaker 1: look up to and admire Ernie Johnson. Man, thank you
Speaker 1: for making some time today. We know we're in the
Speaker 1: midst of the playoffs. Man, it's my pleasure. Man, appreciate
Speaker 1: when I got the email. Yeah, yeah, definitely definitely making
Speaker 1: the time for absolutely. Man. Well, thank you. Let's jump
Speaker 1: right into a man. We are in Atlanta. The Atlanta
Speaker 1: Hawks have exceeded all expectations. What has the energy been
Speaker 1: like around here and what has it been like covering
Speaker 1: this young, exciting team. It's a story, man, this weekend,
Speaker 1: didn't we're telling what's gonna be going. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: like on Sunday and UM and Saturday leading up to
Speaker 1: Sunday in Game three and then Tuesday with Game four.
Speaker 1: So man, the fact that they won that first one
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee and have done it every series so far.
Speaker 1: Go on the road and then you guys know, I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's not easy to do. Start a playoff
Speaker 1: series on the road and you know, beat somebody on
Speaker 1: their floor team. Yeah. Yeah. And you look at all
Speaker 1: these guys who it's their first taste of it. Maybe
Speaker 1: they don't know any better, maybe they don't know they're
Speaker 1: not supposed to do. But that's what we're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, Like what has it been of late? It's
Speaker 1: not only Atlanta's young core, but it's Phoenix's young core,
Speaker 1: and there's other young cores that you know, normally the
Speaker 1: narrative of you know, young players in the playoffs, like
Speaker 1: there hasn't been any of that this year. What can
Speaker 1: you contribute that to maybe a big games leading up
Speaker 1: to their NBA career or just yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: just it's just tough to figure because I mean, just
Speaker 1: look at Atlanta, so you're the five seed. You've got
Speaker 1: to open up in New York and everybody's talking about
Speaker 1: or look what Tips has here and look at Julius Randall.
Speaker 1: Look at this is gonna be very you know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be tough series and then they take care of
Speaker 1: that in five and then you say, okay, okay, this
Speaker 1: will be different now with Philly because Philly has been
Speaker 1: close to getting to where they want to be, and
Speaker 1: there's all this, you know, just happy to be here.
Speaker 1: This is what the Hawks should be. Now it's house money,
Speaker 1: and now it's you know, it's a swing. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a free swing. And that's I guess some of
Speaker 1: that is Nate's influence, Nate McMillan's influence, um, and that's
Speaker 1: what you have to rely on because you know, you
Speaker 1: look at who's been there. Okay, Love has been a
Speaker 1: lot of playoff games, Capella has been in playoff games,
Speaker 1: Tony Snell has been in playoff games. But there's you know,
Speaker 1: there's not one of these voices, you know of a
Speaker 1: guy who's been way deep in the playoffs and knows
Speaker 1: exactly what it takes to get to this level that
Speaker 1: they can to you know, tune into. So I think
Speaker 1: it's I think Nate's influence has been great, and you
Speaker 1: know his I'm reading what he says after these games
Speaker 1: and it's like, look, everybody in the NBA has got talent.
Speaker 1: Every every team's got talent. He said, but when you
Speaker 1: got a team that cares for each other and plays
Speaker 1: for each other and plays the right way, there's no
Speaker 1: telling where you can go with it. And man, they've
Speaker 1: been showing me something. And but you know, look, I'm
Speaker 1: talking to two players here. You guys know a player's
Speaker 1: mindset a lot better than I do. But when you're
Speaker 1: in there for the first time and it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like it, I mean, where's where does that? Where does
Speaker 1: that come from? And it's it's not like, not only
Speaker 1: have we not been here, it's like we're gonna relish
Speaker 1: being here and we're not gonna be satisfied with just
Speaker 1: making it, you know. So it's been a fun story
Speaker 1: to watch. Man, n Nate was tough minded. So if
Speaker 1: you know anything about Nate McMillan, how he played the game,
Speaker 1: you know this team is playing just like him as
Speaker 1: a player because he was he was one of a
Speaker 1: great defend the real tough minded guy. And I think
Speaker 1: that's I think that's of transferring over to those young guys.
Speaker 1: You know what's crazy too when you look at the
Speaker 1: Hawks and they do all this on the road, and
Speaker 1: most of the the trades big games have come on the road,
Speaker 1: on the road. This is a team the last year
Speaker 1: when they didn't you know, they didn't even go to
Speaker 1: the bubble, they won six games on the road. Last year,
Speaker 1: they've won six games in the playoffs on the road.
Speaker 1: I mean you talk about a transformation. Man, That's that's
Speaker 1: when other teams can't get them can buy a game
Speaker 1: on the road. Exactly right, exactly right. What are your
Speaker 1: thoughts about the Hawks and the young cor leading by
Speaker 1: Trey Young and John Collins? Like, and we're definitely surprised
Speaker 1: that everything they're doing, but these two, you're telling, two
Speaker 1: young guys are really leading this team and making a
Speaker 1: name for themselves. When you think about those two guys,
Speaker 1: I think for the majority of the of the basketball public,
Speaker 1: the diehards all know Trade John Collins, the fringe guys,
Speaker 1: you know, the people who watch, Yeah, the casual who
Speaker 1: may just tune in, Oh it's playoff time. And Kenny
Speaker 1: like the other night part of our show, and I
Speaker 1: will get around to answering your question. It's just and
Speaker 1: I'm really long winded. Part of our show is like
Speaker 1: we realize that they're gonna be eyeballs on the set
Speaker 1: that maybe haven't been there. So our producer Jeremy Levin
Speaker 1: the other day says, we're gonna have a little Meet
Speaker 1: the Bucks and Meet the Hawks starting five kind of
Speaker 1: a thing. You So, we're just a little little bio
Speaker 1: page on each guy. So we cranked this thing out.
Speaker 1: We did the Bucks first, and Kenny is just killing us.
Speaker 1: Why are we doing this? You think we don't know
Speaker 1: who the Greek freak is? You think we don't know
Speaker 1: who Chris Middleton has said, we're not doing this show
Speaker 1: for you. We're doing this show for the fans who
Speaker 1: are watching and may not know. And so then when
Speaker 1: you then when you get to the Kevin Herders of
Speaker 1: the world, and Shack says, I'm never gonna and I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna call it another man red velvet. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like he'd rather call him OPI and so um
Speaker 1: I think I think at that point, you know, we're
Speaker 1: introducing some players to the public, and there's a guy
Speaker 1: like John Collins, who is man. He got this greyhound
Speaker 1: kind of a body. Man. I mean, he's built strong,
Speaker 1: jump out of the gym. He even told us the
Speaker 1: other day, you know, but we had him on the
Speaker 1: game on the postgame show, and he says something about
Speaker 1: you know, I mean I have some freakish you know,
Speaker 1: athleticism to he does. But you're you're looking at guys
Speaker 1: like this, who um, you know, not just talking about it,
Speaker 1: they're being about it. So you need a double double
Speaker 1: and you need a corner three late in the game
Speaker 1: on the other guy's floor. I mean John Collins was huge. Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, they've just they've got this good young mix.
Speaker 1: And while everybody's heard of Trey, uh, it's the Kevin Herders,
Speaker 1: it's the John Collins, it's the Bog Bogdanovich. Uh. Those
Speaker 1: guys who are who are getting it done, and everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of sleep on Clint Capella. But
Speaker 1: he has nineteen rebounds and he has two offensive boards
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, and yeah, exactly know the Gelo
Speaker 1: coming and playing this old game. You're right, You're right, man.
Speaker 1: I mean they got these pieces and it's it's not
Speaker 1: knock your socks off kind of personnel when you look
Speaker 1: at it and say, well, let's look at this. Brooklyn
Speaker 1: has boom Book and Atlanta has But when you're playing
Speaker 1: together and you're playing for each other and you're playing
Speaker 1: the right way, no telling things happening. Born in Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: You've been in Atlanta, uh since a youngster. So what
Speaker 1: is this kind of matchup kind of meant to you
Speaker 1: personally being someone from Milwaukee and then obviously residing in Atlanta. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's that is what it is. I had
Speaker 1: no control over any of those things. You know. I
Speaker 1: had no control over where I was born. I had
Speaker 1: no control over where we moved. You know. I was
Speaker 1: born in Milwaukee. My dad as a ballplayer, baseball player,
Speaker 1: and so he played for the Milwaukee Braves. And then
Speaker 1: when when the Braves moved to Atlanta, it's like, here
Speaker 1: we go. When I made or nine, I'm not saying no, Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm not going, you know, I'm going down there, but
Speaker 1: it is it's an interesting kind of a deal. And um,
Speaker 1: I'll always have this place in my heart for Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: When we were there for the Eastern Conference finals two
Speaker 1: years ago, it was awesome. People were so nice, were
Speaker 1: back to my old neighborhood. We had a we had
Speaker 1: a cook out in the front yard of my old house.
Speaker 1: H people who lived there. U. The other people who
Speaker 1: who have moved into the house I used to live
Speaker 1: in have always been so accommodating, Like I'd go up
Speaker 1: there for the p G A championship, you know when
Speaker 1: we were calling that, and I'd swing by the house,
Speaker 1: come on in, go you know, look at your old
Speaker 1: room and and those things. Those are crazy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that night and it was a beautiful spring night and
Speaker 1: everybody comes out of their house, everybody's milling around, Shock
Speaker 1: comes by, Chuck Chucks there it was. It was awesome
Speaker 1: and so um, yeah, it's just a it's a kind
Speaker 1: of a unique thing, certainly, something we haven't seen in
Speaker 1: a while in the league. Having Atlanta Milwaukee you matched up.
Speaker 1: But happy for the city of Atlanta to again having
Speaker 1: lived here as long as I have and seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of different regimes and and knowing that you like
Speaker 1: when Mike for Tello had this team, and you remember
Speaker 1: those those teams that doctor Doc and Nick and Randy Whitman,
Speaker 1: Antoine Car John Battle. You know, um, and that was
Speaker 1: a hot ticket and it's good to see a hot
Speaker 1: ticket back. Aside from the Hawks, what players and teams
Speaker 1: have you been impressed within the playoffs this year? Mary?
Speaker 1: How do you? I guess you gotta start Phoenix, don't
Speaker 1: you know? I mean, Devin Booker again, to watch Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: watch Trey Young act like they've you know, And I
Speaker 1: always make a note before a series starts, and I
Speaker 1: look at you know how many playoff games you've been in,
Speaker 1: you know, and these playoffs start, and you've got a
Speaker 1: zero next to books name, You've got a zero next
Speaker 1: to trades name. Booker has been Booker has been tremendous. Again,
Speaker 1: that's another one of those teams. You know, Monty Williams
Speaker 1: done such a great job and and and they are
Speaker 1: fun to watch. Chris Paul is amazing, you know, just
Speaker 1: his um again, and you guys could speak to this.
Speaker 1: I hate to preface every answer with you guys could
Speaker 1: speak to this better than I can't. But it's true.
Speaker 1: But just the intangibles that he brings, just the confidence
Speaker 1: that he instills, the leading by example. You know, here's
Speaker 1: how the game's played. Watch me. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to preach to you how to do it, but
Speaker 1: watch and and so you know, that's a team that
Speaker 1: plays both ends of the floor. Mckel bridge is one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive players out there eights you know,
Speaker 1: come until then. I think he took that a d
Speaker 1: matchup in the first round. Personally's been riding. Yeah, no
Speaker 1: doubt from that first game. I think that first game
Speaker 1: of his playoff career was huge. If he'd gone out
Speaker 1: there and A d had just eating his lunch, and
Speaker 1: it might have been maybe I'm not ready for this,
Speaker 1: not even and here at this point, if that's what happened. Instead,
Speaker 1: after that game, everybody's talking about, well, look who I played,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis. So yeah, I think they've been impressive. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, shoot, Paul George has had a great post
Speaker 1: su um trying to especially when you lose Kauai. He's
Speaker 1: stepped up. Yeah, I think he takes a lot of
Speaker 1: unfair heat, unforced. He's like someone that people just love
Speaker 1: to hate on for some reason. You might have gotta
Speaker 1: think everyone was loving him and felt bad for him
Speaker 1: when he hurt himself and then he kind of got
Speaker 1: himself back to old p G. And then he's just,
Speaker 1: for some reason, the guy that people love to attack.
Speaker 1: And I love that he's been able to first and
Speaker 1: foremost address the mental and psychological toll it took on
Speaker 1: him in the bubble last year and coming out of it.
Speaker 1: We had him on the show before the season starting
Speaker 1: he just said, you know, I'm locked in this year
Speaker 1: and I'm back to myself and I've been able to
Speaker 1: love to see the Obviously there's some ups and downs,
Speaker 1: but for overall, he's been playing great. And and I
Speaker 1: think part of that whole thing two is, you know,
Speaker 1: you get this Twitter beef and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: you know, something happens and somebody fires at you, and
Speaker 1: then you returned fire, and then and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, it's like, hold on, how did this become
Speaker 1: the story over this? And so that whole narrative is
Speaker 1: playing out. But yeah, he's he's been he's been great. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know, on the Milwaukee side, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's like, here's your opportunity. You know, two years ago
Speaker 1: you had it. You had a chance to go to
Speaker 1: the finals, and you didn't get it done. And now
Speaker 1: you know, obviously everybody knows a freak. And but I
Speaker 1: think Drew Holiday has been great. And I don't know
Speaker 1: PJ having p J having that series where he's just
Speaker 1: bird dogging Kevin Durant and talking to his mom, you know,
Speaker 1: and that that was one of the cool things to me.
Speaker 1: Game seven, it's like a yeah, it's like a one
Speaker 1: point game. It's game seven, third quarter. Here he is
Speaker 1: talking to Wanda, you know, and love you too, you know.
Speaker 1: So no, there as as in every playoffs every year,
Speaker 1: there there were great stories. There are great moments that
Speaker 1: you just you're glad to be a part of. And
Speaker 1: um and then to watch, you know, I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see what happens in this Atlanta Milwaukee game as
Speaker 1: we speak here on this Milwaukee game, on game two, UM,
Speaker 1: because part of you thinks, well, maybe let's see if
Speaker 1: the Hawks are satisfied with getting that first one and
Speaker 1: now let's get back to our place, or again if
Speaker 1: if that just doesn't even enter the equation. But like
Speaker 1: you said, they're young, and sometimes those young teams don't
Speaker 1: know no better. Luck where Milwaukee, we're coming to win, period,
Speaker 1: exactly right. You know what's funny too about the Bucks
Speaker 1: this year. I'm trying to make sure our numbers are
Speaker 1: right because but they have thirty three games this year
Speaker 1: where they shot fift haven't had one in the postseason.
Speaker 1: They have not shot fifty yet and yeah not not
Speaker 1: in the game. And in their three balls, I mean
Speaker 1: they're shooting from three and there you know, they were
Speaker 1: that's where they live. So um, it's just a nugget
Speaker 1: to throw out there. See if I were on the
Speaker 1: show right now, Charles, I don't care about that. You
Speaker 1: are your numbers. Good morning was very close. You know
Speaker 1: most of the big market teams. All of the big
Speaker 1: market teams are at home right now. You know, Lakers,
Speaker 1: uh heat, Nick, Celtics, Golden State seventies sis. I've been
Speaker 1: impressed still that it really feels like still the energy
Speaker 1: and the numbers are saying that this is still the
Speaker 1: most watched playoffs since two thousand two. Um, it really
Speaker 1: feels like the league is not necessary passing the torch chip,
Speaker 1: but the league is in great hands with this young
Speaker 1: talent that is on the rise. Sure, people get carried
Speaker 1: away with numbers and ratings and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I'm like the worst person in the world to talk
Speaker 1: to about that because I don't care if one person
Speaker 1: is watching or eight billion or watching our show. You're
Speaker 1: gonna do it the same You're gonna do it the
Speaker 1: same way. And um, I'm just rooting for compelling series.
Speaker 1: That's all That's all you can possibly want, is that
Speaker 1: is that people during the day when they're at work. Um,
Speaker 1: and they're saying, man, I can't get home. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to get home and watch that game tonight. You
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna get that. The series of Standing three,
Speaker 1: Oh you know, it's just like I'm you know, I
Speaker 1: get there. But when when when series are like this,
Speaker 1: I don't care which city is represented. We just want
Speaker 1: I just want compelling games. I want to much. I
Speaker 1: want you to look back like people are at the
Speaker 1: water cooler today. If water coolers still exist, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. You know, they're saying, man, did you stay
Speaker 1: up and watch that Clipper game? Yeah? Yeah I did,
Speaker 1: and and so um, that's what we're hoping for. Man,
Speaker 1: that's that's what we want. Nobody's rooting for teams. People
Speaker 1: want to say that, oh man, you guys are off.
Speaker 1: You are so you know, I know we're not. We
Speaker 1: just want the games to be good. Man. Let's have
Speaker 1: triple over time, Let's have you know, let's have dramatic.
Speaker 1: Let's have eight and Duncan at the you know, with
Speaker 1: seven tenths of the second off the board in the playoff,
Speaker 1: Katie with his gass feet on the line, they could
Speaker 1: have sent Milwaukee home. But instead, I mean isn't I mean,
Speaker 1: aren't Those moments are just like wow, yeah and so yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a great time of year for us. What
Speaker 1: was it like moving down the ages nine? I had
Speaker 1: no idea what Atlanta was, where Atlanta was. You know,
Speaker 1: you're nine years old, eight nine, I'm I think I
Speaker 1: was probably eight going on nine, you know, and you're
Speaker 1: you're in Milwaukee, you know, just doing whatever eight year
Speaker 1: old is doing Milwaukee, and all of a sudden, it's okay,
Speaker 1: going to Atlanta. I didn't know if that was like
Speaker 1: next to Brazil or near Antarctica. I had no idea
Speaker 1: where Atlanta was, you know, because of the reason for
Speaker 1: the move. Had you excited because okay, your dad works
Speaker 1: for the Braves. My dad was a broadcaster at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, so um, it was just like, man, I
Speaker 1: can't wait to you know, go to a new ballpark
Speaker 1: and you know, watch ball games and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And I look and I realized I had I had
Speaker 1: this like this dream childhood, growing up the son of
Speaker 1: a ballplayer, you know, and I'm broadcaster. Because you go,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to the stadium with him. You know,
Speaker 1: he's going there six hours before first pitch. You know,
Speaker 1: and doing this stuff and everything. Yeah, I'm sitting there.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here with my four arm on the bed
Speaker 1: in cage watching Hank Aaron takes one and I'm like,
Speaker 1: dare I shoot man? You know, I mean, I had it.
Speaker 1: It was great. So uh so moving down here was awesome.
Speaker 1: We had to get used to how to get used
Speaker 1: to some accents and that kind of thing. Here's the
Speaker 1: true here's a true story. My my mom. They have
Speaker 1: been doing some roadworks and my mom drives over some
Speaker 1: new paved road and all this stuff splashes up on
Speaker 1: the side of the car. And so she says, we
Speaker 1: pulled into this gas station when they used to have
Speaker 1: full syrup, you know, when the guy comes out and said,
Speaker 1: my mom says, I need you, I need you to
Speaker 1: get the tar off my car. And he says, which
Speaker 1: tar is it? She said, no, the tar that splash
Speaker 1: knows that the left front tar or is it the
Speaker 1: rod time like, oh okay, welcome. So okay. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that that was our first that was our first lesson
Speaker 1: in the southern drawl. That's so growing up, as you know,
Speaker 1: having your dad in the major leagues and then transition
Speaker 1: into broadcast. What was that like as a young kid
Speaker 1: in school and and and around your friends. You know, it's, um,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting point because it was you got a
Speaker 1: lot of that, Well, he's just he just made the
Speaker 1: All Star team because his dad's the Braves, and you know,
Speaker 1: there was you know, there was some of that built
Speaker 1: in stuff like that, and or he's just doing this
Speaker 1: because his dad blah blah blah. You get used to
Speaker 1: some of that stuff. You realize obviously that unless you
Speaker 1: prove it on your own, career is not gonna last.
Speaker 1: It's even you know, it's like you get your first
Speaker 1: TV job and making Georgia, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: and so that's not the biggest market in the world
Speaker 1: with people loyal. You only got the making TV job
Speaker 1: because his dad's the bravest broadcasting. Look, people at those
Speaker 1: spacetions don't care if you get on the air and
Speaker 1: you're horrible. Yeah, they're they're not gonna say, well, we
Speaker 1: gotta keep him, you know. You know, it's like you
Speaker 1: gotta keep on proving yourself to move up. And so, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was again, you know, it was great. You know,
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time just going to the
Speaker 1: ballpark and watching him work. You know, I watched my
Speaker 1: dad how he how seriously he took his his craft,
Speaker 1: you know, in his preparation, and how he treated people.
Speaker 1: And and again it's not like he had to sit
Speaker 1: me down and lecture me about this is how you
Speaker 1: do this, this is It was just I watched him.
Speaker 1: You see an example. Yeah, and I tell Dad's all
Speaker 1: the time. Now, I said, look, you've got to realize
Speaker 1: that kids have superpowers. Man. They see and hear everything.
Speaker 1: And so they was. They see how you're acting when
Speaker 1: you're caught in traffic, They see what happens when you've
Speaker 1: had a bad day at the office. They see it
Speaker 1: and they hear it, and you don't, you know, even
Speaker 1: though you may not consciously be thinking you're teaching them,
Speaker 1: they're learning and all times. Well, you kind of opened
Speaker 1: the door with this, but I kind of want to
Speaker 1: dig a little deeper. Um memorable experiences as a child,
Speaker 1: Um around the game of baseball. You know, you said
Speaker 1: you got to casually watch Hank Aaron takes practice some
Speaker 1: other stories that they were just like wow, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean some of it's like an eye opener because
Speaker 1: you know, you're sitting around in the Braves clubhouse. You know,
Speaker 1: a few hours before the game. You know, my dad
Speaker 1: may be doing an interview over here in the corner,
Speaker 1: doing something like that, and it's like, wow, that guys
Speaker 1: sitting in his locker smoking a cigarette. It's like really, um,
Speaker 1: But it was I think it was just all the
Speaker 1: opportunities I had, even to meet guys my dad played against,
Speaker 1: like Staying usual, okay, one of the all time greats.
Speaker 1: And and you know, the Cardinals would be in town
Speaker 1: and we'd be on the field. My dad would say, hey,
Speaker 1: come over here, you gotta meet this guy. And so
Speaker 1: I meet, you know, and and again this is not
Speaker 1: all when I'm a little nine and ten year old.
Speaker 1: I'm in high school at this point, and you know,
Speaker 1: and I know the game and I know these players,
Speaker 1: and like stand mutual comes up, you know, and we
Speaker 1: shake hands and he says, man, I remember facing your dad.
Speaker 1: You know, he used to throw my dad through a
Speaker 1: palm ball, which is you know, they don't call at
Speaker 1: the palm ball anymore. But that was his change up.
Speaker 1: You know. Now you've got circle change and you get
Speaker 1: all this stuff. But he said, my your dad threw
Speaker 1: me this palm ball, and the same motion as his fastball,
Speaker 1: and the ball never got there. We just went and
Speaker 1: got what I'm saying, Listen, how cool is this that
Speaker 1: I got stand usual telling me stories about my dad,
Speaker 1: you know. And then um, on the basketball side, it
Speaker 1: was like, um, when the Hawks moved down here early seventies,
Speaker 1: you know where they played Georgia Tech. That the same
Speaker 1: colosseum where they where they play. It was Alexander Memorial
Speaker 1: Coliseum there. But when the Longs down here, they played
Speaker 1: their games at Georgia Tech. And so yeah, my dad
Speaker 1: would would And what's strange now, my dad always used
Speaker 1: to park on the same piece of street right across
Speaker 1: from the UH from the arena, which is and I
Speaker 1: drive past that every day when I go to work.
Speaker 1: I mean, I go down that same hill, and I
Speaker 1: remember my dad stopping and in parallel park and then
Speaker 1: we'd walk across go in there. But that's where I
Speaker 1: saw Pete Mirovich play. That's where I saw you know,
Speaker 1: the teams that came in. That's why I saw Will,
Speaker 1: I saw Bill Russell, saw all these guys as I
Speaker 1: was growing up, you know, watching you know, and that's
Speaker 1: where I that's where basketball bit me, you know, that's
Speaker 1: you know, Jerry West, you know, watching all of these
Speaker 1: guys and then and what's cool is like, you know,
Speaker 1: at the Legends brunch and that kind of thing at
Speaker 1: All Star weekend where you run into some of these
Speaker 1: guys and you bring up to them. I used to
Speaker 1: watch you play at Georgia Tech against the Hawks, and
Speaker 1: there's a man that the lights in that place were
Speaker 1: so bad and that floor was so hard, and that
Speaker 1: was you know, and they and they remember it, and
Speaker 1: then it's I And I even shouted out one day.
Speaker 1: I shouted out to jumping Joe Caldwell at that Legends
Speaker 1: brunch and I said, man, I grew up watching guys
Speaker 1: like this, and and Joe was there and I didn't
Speaker 1: know who it was. And then it was like, man,
Speaker 1: you don't know what it meant to have somebody bring
Speaker 1: up my name again for fifty years after, you know?
Speaker 1: So cool? Um No, that's that's where I got that
Speaker 1: first taste of the NBA. Man just loved some big names.
Speaker 1: Pistol was my guy. That was that was you know, everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody was trying to grow their hair all floppy. Everybody
Speaker 1: wore the floppy socks. Everybody wanted to shoot from thirty,
Speaker 1: you know, but he was What was it like seeing
Speaker 1: him play though, and and just his game obviously before
Speaker 1: his time in his game, but what was it like
Speaker 1: just watching him play? My dad actually even took me
Speaker 1: up to Athens once when Pete was still at l
Speaker 1: s U. Because I see, my dad was a huge fan.
Speaker 1: My dad played some semi pro basketball, so he loved who.
Speaker 1: But he, you know, he'd always like LS she was
Speaker 1: playing in Georgia. Tonight, We're gonna go up and watch Pete,
Speaker 1: you know, and I mean he just you know, you're
Speaker 1: not talking about a three point line over there at
Speaker 1: that point, but he just had this this great flair,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was like you didn't care really
Speaker 1: who won the game. You just wanted to see this
Speaker 1: guy that everybobody was talking about. And as the legend goes,
Speaker 1: also he wants won a game with a hook shot
Speaker 1: like at at Georgia and the Georgia fans pick up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's what the legends says. I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I can't test to that, but that, but the but
Speaker 1: the story is, yeah, he hit, he hit a game winner,
Speaker 1: and the and the home fans picked him up and
Speaker 1: carried him off the floor. That sounds like a little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was You never know if
Speaker 1: it could happened anyone that could happen to him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Lou Hudson was there's um OBEEDI in those days.
Speaker 1: I mean it was, man, it was a great It
Speaker 1: was a great education in the game of NBA basketball.
Speaker 1: What were the early years of your broadcasting career like
Speaker 1: trying to find your footing and climbing the ladder. It's
Speaker 1: like it's like what it is for a lot of kids,
Speaker 1: and you know, journalism schools and you know, and that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Where again, there's so many more outlets
Speaker 1: now than there were when I, you know, I graduated,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was like, Okay, you want to
Speaker 1: do sports or if you know, if you want to
Speaker 1: you gotta go to ABC, CBS or NBC. You know,
Speaker 1: ESPN was just getting going, you know, CNN and its
Speaker 1: infancy and so, you know, I go down to Macon, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and I'm anchoring the news and at that point, I'm
Speaker 1: like twenty I'm twenty three years old, scared to death,
Speaker 1: you know, and not very good at it. But I'm
Speaker 1: on TV, this is what I want to do. But
Speaker 1: my first three jobs were all news jobs. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was a general assignment reporter after being
Speaker 1: a news anchor and making and they hired me here
Speaker 1: in Atlanta as a news reporter. So I was doing
Speaker 1: all that you know, crime beat stuff and all the
Speaker 1: county commissioned. Yeah, because because while I did radio in
Speaker 1: Athens and I was doing news and sports and I said, whatever,
Speaker 1: whoever was gonna hire me first, I'm going and it
Speaker 1: was and and again, and so it's a news job.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, it's in this business, things work
Speaker 1: out crazy. Sometimes. A new news director took over at
Speaker 1: WUSB and when I'd been there like two or three years,
Speaker 1: and one of our sports guys was on vacation. So
Speaker 1: I'm filling into in a live shop before a baseball game.
Speaker 1: And I come into work the next day and his
Speaker 1: assistant says, Raven wants to see you in his office.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying, all right, I guess I better put
Speaker 1: my stuff in a box and get out. You know,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take this guy one day to let me go.
Speaker 1: And I walked in there and he says, you thought
Speaker 1: about doing sports over what happened that and I was like, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of thought I was pigeonholding to the news
Speaker 1: and now but he said, now, I think I'd like
Speaker 1: to make you the weekend sports anchor and make a
Speaker 1: change here and changed the whole trajectory of my career
Speaker 1: and in my life. You know that it was eighty
Speaker 1: four maybe because I started at SB and eighty two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so like three eighty four somewhere around there, and uh,
Speaker 1: and so all of a sudden, I was just I
Speaker 1: was the weekend sports guy. And and that's when that
Speaker 1: led to like six years of that. And then the
Speaker 1: folks at Turner And that's a good thing about Heaven
Speaker 1: Turner in Atlanta. They saw me all the time, and
Speaker 1: so when they had an opening, they were like, they
Speaker 1: called me and said, you want to come over here
Speaker 1: and work with us. I said, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: think that sounds good. And so could we could pay
Speaker 1: you this? Yeah, I could do I could do that.
Speaker 1: That's a little more than I'm getting here at the
Speaker 1: at the local station. We get to the T and
Speaker 1: T in that journey, tell us where elevator Ernie was
Speaker 1: born At elevator Ernie was born at the Omni, the Omni,
Speaker 1: the Omni Um. And that's like mid eighties, that's eighty
Speaker 1: five or eighty six. And this is when I'm anchoring
Speaker 1: the Weekend Sports at Channel two and Bill Needle was
Speaker 1: the it's a name from the past. He was the
Speaker 1: Hawks pr director at that point. So he's setting up
Speaker 1: a media slam dunk contest um. So there are a
Speaker 1: couple of writers from the A j C. Steve Bruner
Speaker 1: was in there, a couple other guys, Craig Sager from
Speaker 1: who was at TBS at the times. So Sagar gets invited.
Speaker 1: Segar shows up wearing these candy stripe red and white
Speaker 1: shorts that were just about exposing everything he had. Okay,
Speaker 1: and I was like, how can you wear shorts that
Speaker 1: that's small? And he's but SAgs and I knew each
Speaker 1: other even back then because we'd be care you know,
Speaker 1: a covering different stuff. So they said, yeah, okay, you
Speaker 1: guys show up here at the Hawks shoot around because
Speaker 1: this is when and we're gonna kind of show you
Speaker 1: what's happening because we're gonna do this in the pregame
Speaker 1: at the Hawks tonight. Gave us a pair of gave
Speaker 1: us a pair of Brooks gave us neat shoes, so
Speaker 1: I had you know, I was wearing Dominique's Brooks on
Speaker 1: that thing, and I don't know what possessed me to
Speaker 1: wear those. So I talked about Sager shorts. I had
Speaker 1: some for smugglers onto they those things. I was reaching.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was thinking. Man, You know
Speaker 1: what it's isn't amazing when you look back some years
Speaker 1: and say, what I think kept the glasses on, the
Speaker 1: had the glasses, had the socks up. They here had
Speaker 1: the that was a style back then though. Yeah. The huggers, man,
Speaker 1: it was you know, yeah, the grape smugglers as Kenny
Speaker 1: always calls them. So yeah, so that's where it started.
Speaker 1: And they gave us the they gave us the T
Speaker 1: shirts and mindset elevator Ernie. And I had no idea,
Speaker 1: not like I came out here and said, hey, make
Speaker 1: mine elevator. You just showed up at that night and
Speaker 1: they said, here's your T shirt, Elevator Ernie. Okay, And
Speaker 1: so yeah, we did like on an eight foot rim.
Speaker 1: It was. It was some brutal entertainment. But I looked
Speaker 1: back at some of those pictures and I saw Craig Neil,
Speaker 1: who was one of the judges of Van Joseph member
Speaker 1: from Haydi was the center at Georgia Tech. He was
Speaker 1: one of the judges. And uh and then somehow that
Speaker 1: video resurrected itself on our air and now it won't
Speaker 1: go away. So now in any slow moment, anytime they
Speaker 1: want to they want to hurt me, they bring that.
Speaker 1: Did you did you have a conduct in real life
Speaker 1: on a look at me? Come on, man, what do
Speaker 1: you think touching net? You never know? You could have
Speaker 1: been airbone in a younger day. No, no, I never could.
Speaker 1: I touched the rim maybe, but I could never do that.
Speaker 1: I could. I could never. And that's and that's what
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was. And I think it
Speaker 1: maybe if I had had what a lot of young
Speaker 1: players these days have, and that's you know, they were
Speaker 1: training tools and that kind of thing where somebody can
Speaker 1: actually tell you here, hey, look, this is how you
Speaker 1: if you want a vertical this is what you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to do, and you're gonna have to work on
Speaker 1: this and you're gonna have to develop. But but for me,
Speaker 1: it was like, um, look, even though you look in
Speaker 1: my physique I was not a big guy in a
Speaker 1: weight room. I know that surprising, but it was like,
Speaker 1: I'm one of those guys who were like when I
Speaker 1: was taking pe classes and they started doing pull ups,
Speaker 1: I always found a way to kind of get through
Speaker 1: the back of the line every time and then they sayah,
Speaker 1: let's move over here. Good. So we're talking about that too.
Speaker 1: How you know, when we were younger, you just played outside.
Speaker 1: We played everything. We played outside. There was no training,
Speaker 1: there was no you had games. You barely had practice
Speaker 1: like now, because I have twelve year olds now and
Speaker 1: it's really like almost not a job, but almost like
Speaker 1: a job with their routines at a young age, and
Speaker 1: I kind of just missed the days they're just going
Speaker 1: outside and play until the lights came on. That's you know,
Speaker 1: you're exactly right, and that's the same, and the world's
Speaker 1: just different because you know, we used to you know,
Speaker 1: I was more baseball player than I was a basketball player.
Speaker 1: I played a little college baseball at Georgia UM, but
Speaker 1: growing up, obviously baseball was my first love. And so
Speaker 1: I mean all those summer mornings, all your buds would
Speaker 1: get together, you'd all walk a mile and a half
Speaker 1: to the grammar school up there where they had a
Speaker 1: field and you would just play. You would play all day.
Speaker 1: You play pick up games all day. You come home stinking,
Speaker 1: just horrible. You know, you're so just and so hungry
Speaker 1: to have dinner. But your parents never gave it a
Speaker 1: second thought. It was never like, where's there any over
Speaker 1: Spaulding playing playing ball? You know, but it's different. It's different,
Speaker 1: and we didn't have video games and any of that stuff. Man,
Speaker 1: it was like, just go play. I can't know, I
Speaker 1: can't get my kids outside like in the world. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you gotta. You gotta bribe them. I'll get your
Speaker 1: video games to go outside. Yeah. How did you Nanna
Speaker 1: Turnis Woods? Uh? They called one day. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been there. I'd been a SB Channel two here in
Speaker 1: Atlanta for bike six or seven years, and they were
Speaker 1: actually looking to make me the host of a you know,
Speaker 1: Mcguy's Member wide World Sports. TBS had its own version
Speaker 1: of that called US Olympic Gold, and they were using
Speaker 1: that show as like a year long vehicle to lead
Speaker 1: up to the good Will Games Ted Turners, you know, Olympics,
Speaker 1: the good Will Games and um. And they said we
Speaker 1: want you to come be the host of US Olympic
Speaker 1: Gold and then be the host of the good Will Games.
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, that'd be cool. You know, I
Speaker 1: can do that. And then there was a shake up
Speaker 1: in the hierarchy of the good Will Games and they said,
Speaker 1: oh no, Ernie Johnson is not going to be the
Speaker 1: host of the good Will Games, Larry King is going
Speaker 1: to be the host of the good Will Games, and
Speaker 1: and Hannah Storm is gonna be one of the co
Speaker 1: hosts and Nick Charles um and so um. I was
Speaker 1: left doing um a variety of sports, Judo modern pent
Speaker 1: tat rowing. It was back at the time the less
Speaker 1: sexy sports. Yeah, it was back at the time when
Speaker 1: the Bo Jackson A campaign was out there with Bono's Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I told folks I was doing all the
Speaker 1: sports Bo doesn't know and so, but that's the way,
Speaker 1: that's the way it worked out. And really we hardly
Speaker 1: talked about the NBA when I signed the contract m
Speaker 1: but t NT was just coming into being. And so
Speaker 1: after after the good Will Games there and I I
Speaker 1: did some reporting for the NBA that first year. Back then,
Speaker 1: they the Segar was the studio host at that time,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to move SEG's on the road as
Speaker 1: a reporter, and they moved me into that chair for
Speaker 1: the season and I've been sitting there ever since. That
Speaker 1: That's what inside the nbacially, Yeah, the start exactly, that's
Speaker 1: you know, it was the pregame show and then it
Speaker 1: was yeah, and the postgame show was different there than
Speaker 1: sometimes it was all dictated by the clock. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like inside the NBA is next, but the game
Speaker 1: went till five till eleven, so it would be like
Speaker 1: six minutes. Hey, how you doing. You know, how about
Speaker 1: that game? We'll see it and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: But but then it really just kind of morphed into
Speaker 1: what it is now. He's playing a picture from me
Speaker 1: what the NBA was like in the nineties. Take us back, Oh,
Speaker 1: at the NBA was like in the nineties when I
Speaker 1: first got started there. I mean we're still talking the names.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Birds and the in, the in, the
Speaker 1: Chucks and the Magic's and the Michaels. I mean no,
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard to beat. It was hard to
Speaker 1: beat the star power you had back then. And I
Speaker 1: you know, I still remember going to the workouts for
Speaker 1: the Dream Team back in the early Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was out there a little bit. I didn't go to
Speaker 1: the Olympics, but I was there. It was like the
Speaker 1: same time as the draft to so you go out
Speaker 1: there and and Marv Albert said something really interesting the
Speaker 1: other day because he he was thinking back on that
Speaker 1: dream team and he just remembered the first time he
Speaker 1: saw that collection of talent walk out on the floor.
Speaker 1: At the same time, it was like, you might want
Speaker 1: a catalog this because you may never see something like this, um,
Speaker 1: but those were you know. I mean to me, every
Speaker 1: every era of the NBA has those those stars, those personalities,
Speaker 1: those talents that that you wonder, are we ever going
Speaker 1: to see this again? Because I can remember I can
Speaker 1: remember watching Michael and Nick have some unbelievable you know battles,
Speaker 1: you know, and both of them coming up with stuff.
Speaker 1: You said, Man, I'll never see somebody do that in
Speaker 1: mid air Agat highlight him and then here comes Kobe,
Speaker 1: here comes here comes so many guys who were you know,
Speaker 1: the things that dropped your jaw back then. Events. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you were saying, wow, we're seeing that. Yeah, and you're
Speaker 1: seeing it on a nightly basis. You're seeing it in
Speaker 1: February games, you're seeing a guy come up and do
Speaker 1: something and how did that go in? And and there
Speaker 1: was a time you thought I'll never see anybody do that,
Speaker 1: and now you see it a lot, and and just
Speaker 1: the athleticism in the league has I don't know where
Speaker 1: it goes from here, guys, I mean, I don't. You
Speaker 1: see so many things on a nightly basis that really
Speaker 1: defied description, but you kind of get used to seeing
Speaker 1: them now. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I think it's I mean,
Speaker 1: to me, the dunk contest is so hard because what
Speaker 1: can you really do from here? I mean with Zach
Speaker 1: Lavine and Aaron Gordon and Vince and all these dunks,
Speaker 1: Like you've got to almost kill yourself to do something amazing.
Speaker 1: And then, like you said, too, now we're seeing some
Speaker 1: of these Challenge competition dunks in games. They're getting it
Speaker 1: off in games. You're like, what the hell, Like, what
Speaker 1: is Vince Carter out here doing? No, that's and that
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the Vince in Oakland in two thousand,
Speaker 1: that was my favorite because it's the first time I
Speaker 1: ever heard an arena at All Star Weekend sound like
Speaker 1: a playoff game. I mean when Vince did his thing
Speaker 1: and did it all on a first try, and did
Speaker 1: it so so effortlessly the building erupted. It was like
Speaker 1: somebody had hit a game winner. And you know, and
Speaker 1: from that height, you know that now you've had You
Speaker 1: mentioned Aaron Gordon and Zach Lavine. I mean, they came
Speaker 1: up with some great stuff. But what is I mean,
Speaker 1: what can you do anymore than nobody has ever seen?
Speaker 1: It's all just kind of a little variation, a little
Speaker 1: spinoff of that, you know. And if you say, hey,
Speaker 1: that was pretty original, I said, now, really that looked
Speaker 1: like of what he did. But that's what makes it hard.
Speaker 1: And I think, um, you know, my favorite part of
Speaker 1: it has always been the three point because it's the
Speaker 1: point it was. It's the part of the contest I
Speaker 1: can relate to because I can go out and I
Speaker 1: can go out and gym and shoot, you know, I
Speaker 1: go out and the driveway and shoot. But I'll to
Speaker 1: your to your point, Jack, I'll never be able to
Speaker 1: say I got out in the driveway and dunked, you know.
Speaker 1: So even there's a great appreciation for what they were
Speaker 1: able to do, but there's nothing that says, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I might like to go try that. A
Speaker 1: lot of people think that, yeah, but but when you're
Speaker 1: out there shooting, then it's then you're saying, wow, how
Speaker 1: did Craig Hodges hit that many in a row? Or
Speaker 1: how does he hit this? And in these days, you know,
Speaker 1: how does Dame feel comfortable you know, taking two taking
Speaker 1: two steps over half court and hitting and shooting a jumper,
Speaker 1: not a heave, shooting a jumper, you know, and all
Speaker 1: these guys with their crazy range. Man, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to We're gonna have to make the court bigger something.
Speaker 1: That's the next move I did inside NBA change. Once
Speaker 1: Kenny joined the crew, it got worse, you know what me.
Speaker 1: I worked with Kenny first, and and you guys know
Speaker 1: there's just you either have that or you don't have
Speaker 1: you know, if somebody has to talk, you wouldn't be
Speaker 1: in on TV if somebody has to say, and I
Speaker 1: really wish you would do this, you know, and you
Speaker 1: really you know that's one thing. But when you got it,
Speaker 1: you got it. Kenny had it. You know, Kenny was
Speaker 1: late in his career. He was working his way through
Speaker 1: ten days, you know, like he'd be on the show
Speaker 1: one time. It's hey, Yeah, I was with Detroit. Now
Speaker 1: I'm with so and so. You know so, but man,
Speaker 1: he just has a gift brought it. He's just natural
Speaker 1: and and so I was having a great time working
Speaker 1: with him. And then when you get a chance to
Speaker 1: have Chuck on the Shaw Man, you know, and it
Speaker 1: looked for all the world like he's going to NBC.
Speaker 1: NBC was right here with him, and he he said,
Speaker 1: you know, he had verbally agreed with you know, to
Speaker 1: go to NBC. And he comes down to Atlanta and
Speaker 1: goes out with the Turner folks one night. I don't
Speaker 1: know what that night was like. Yeah, And so he
Speaker 1: signs with us. And your only hope is that the
Speaker 1: things that made him an attractive, you know, option to
Speaker 1: be on your air is um that he'll maintain that,
Speaker 1: that he won't lose that because look, in the course
Speaker 1: of my years that we've had guys on the air
Speaker 1: who you thought from watching him interviewed or that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, he said, well, this got would be great
Speaker 1: on TV. And then the red light goes on and
Speaker 1: they'd rather they'd rather be getting a root canal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, and and they don't want to piss
Speaker 1: anybody off. I don't want to say this because this,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm not. Yeah, Chuck don't care, and
Speaker 1: that's great. And that's the way Chuck has always been.
Speaker 1: You know, any time he was interviewed as a player,
Speaker 1: as and and then after his playing days, he's going
Speaker 1: to tell you what's on his mind. And if you
Speaker 1: don't agree, that's fine. But what he's not gonna do
Speaker 1: is is back away from it and say no, I
Speaker 1: can't say that. He's got that over me because sometimes
Speaker 1: they're you know, there are times in a commercial break
Speaker 1: where I'll say something he said, oh you want to
Speaker 1: say that on the air, I'm not gonna I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna do that, so I'm stealing it. I said, you
Speaker 1: go ahead, you you take that, Um, Because it was
Speaker 1: like the other day, you know, when Indiana UM fired
Speaker 1: Nate b Yorker and is the head coach and and
Speaker 1: then UM in the commercial break. I looked at Chuck
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, they had Nate McMillan ahead,
Speaker 1: and I said, they fired the wrong Nate. And he said, oh,
Speaker 1: you should have said that, and I said, no, I
Speaker 1: don't need due, and he said, well, I'm using it.
Speaker 1: We came out of break the stories fired the wrong Nate,
Speaker 1: you know, so, but Chuck's got that that's not in
Speaker 1: Chuck's DNA to hold back. Chuck's wouldn't be him with that.
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember when he first started doing I
Speaker 1: think that's when you guys kind of went into the
Speaker 1: full booth because he used to wear flip flops and
Speaker 1: shorts and on and just have like the sports code on.
Speaker 1: But then you can see but you can see on anyone.
Speaker 1: Now at least they block it. But I may at
Speaker 1: the beginning when he got on, because I mean that's
Speaker 1: right when I was in college and really started to
Speaker 1: tune into this stuff, and it just kind of see
Speaker 1: his transformation um on that it kind of really find himself.
Speaker 1: What has that been like? Obviously Shot comes and joined
Speaker 1: the show in two thousand eleven. Now it's an animal
Speaker 1: house and you have to control three of the biggest
Speaker 1: personalities in the game. What is that light kind of
Speaker 1: trying to be the quarterback or the kind of the
Speaker 1: the caretaker of such a rambunct alone alone. Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 1: you try to control and sometimes it's just no, you know,
Speaker 1: because you and you have to know that, guys, you
Speaker 1: have to have the and our to our producer's credit,
Speaker 1: Tim Kylie, who was at our producer for a long
Speaker 1: time and now Jeremy Levin have a good feel for that,
Speaker 1: and they know I'm still going to stay out of
Speaker 1: their ears, and during this this thing is rolling, let
Speaker 1: them go. And then but there are times also when
Speaker 1: you say, look, okay, we're to the point where Chuck's
Speaker 1: repeating himself, We're at the we're at the point where
Speaker 1: Shacks about to find him blow a you know, explode
Speaker 1: a blood vessel if he you know, like because they
Speaker 1: just can't they can't disagree on something without like feeling
Speaker 1: like you have to talk louder than the other guy
Speaker 1: to be heard. Like the other day when they're talking
Speaker 1: about how you defend Trey Young and the drop coverage
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing, and Charles says, and Shack
Speaker 1: is screaming over here on my right and he's just no, no,
Speaker 1: And then it's like, okay, I'm still gonna stay out
Speaker 1: of this for a second. But and then every now
Speaker 1: and says, hey, let's just hear Charles. Okay, and Charles, now,
Speaker 1: let's just hear Shack. So that's more my role in
Speaker 1: the thing. Nobody cares what I think about, you know,
Speaker 1: how to defend Trey Young. They want to hear from
Speaker 1: the players. But what I'm trying to do is, hey, look,
Speaker 1: nobody's gonna understand anything if you're yelling and he's screaming,
Speaker 1: and then he's gonna come over and try to move furniture.
Speaker 1: So that that's where that's where you step in and
Speaker 1: try to just moderate and kind of guys, this is
Speaker 1: this is a great discussion, but let's let's make it
Speaker 1: maybe a little more you know, discernible, rather than just
Speaker 1: you shouting at him. But you know the game and
Speaker 1: they come out in different ways, and and so what
Speaker 1: you don't want to do is get in the way
Speaker 1: of really good analysis by saying, oh no, now we've
Speaker 1: got to go to commercial. Our producers are great at
Speaker 1: saying we'll make the time up somewhere else. You guys
Speaker 1: were rolling on him. Who is it the producers? Do
Speaker 1: you guys help just the creativity with the show from
Speaker 1: gone Fishing to Kenny running to the board. I guarantee
Speaker 1: like where it is all the creativity that you guys
Speaker 1: have any inputters that kind of just played by ear
Speaker 1: go up the flow. Everybody's got input everybody. You know,
Speaker 1: the three of us might have input, but it's everybody
Speaker 1: on the crew. That's what makes it. That's what makes
Speaker 1: it so much funk. Like you guys just having a
Speaker 1: blast every single night. But it's everybody upstairs. I mean
Speaker 1: it can be it's it's the assistant graphics guy who think, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's underdogs. You're right, it's everybody, but it's lighting guys,
Speaker 1: it's audio guys, it's and the men and women who
Speaker 1: work on that show come up with an idea and
Speaker 1: you know, like we we'll have a production meeting three
Speaker 1: or four hours before. Uh, Chuck, Kenny and Check are
Speaker 1: not at that and they're not invited to it because
Speaker 1: we don't want them to know what we're what we're
Speaker 1: thinking about doing. But you'd be amazed at how many
Speaker 1: times when they say, we're thinking about doing this for
Speaker 1: the neto stat of the night tonight. You know it's
Speaker 1: based on something that Kenny did back in and you
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe. And you know we're doing these on zoom.
Speaker 1: The number of voices that pop ups and maybe you
Speaker 1: want to use this clip from so and so, maybe
Speaker 1: you want to do this, Maybe you want to do
Speaker 1: this and what's great is our producers are like, bring
Speaker 1: it on, I'm the producer of the show. You know,
Speaker 1: they could say that, and in TV you run into this,
Speaker 1: I'm the producer, this is what we're doing. But these
Speaker 1: guys are like, I'm produced and I've got this great
Speaker 1: crew working with me who throw ideas in and throw
Speaker 1: this out. And that's why. Look, when we've we've been
Speaker 1: very fortunate in terms of the show winning a lot
Speaker 1: of Emmy's and stuff like that. But every time that happens,
Speaker 1: everybody on that crew, no matter what you do, feels like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we won that. We had a hand in love it,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes it. That's what makes it so
Speaker 1: much fun to go to work. Man. I pull into
Speaker 1: that parking lot and I know before this work days through,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna laugh my ass off about something the whole time.
Speaker 1: And we need that absolutely, you know. It's it's there's
Speaker 1: too many people going to work because they gotta go
Speaker 1: to work, but we get to you know, you're good
Speaker 1: at what you do, is it right? And that's the
Speaker 1: thing too. I Mean I'll miss games sometimes a stell
Speaker 1: tune in, you know, just tune in to watch you
Speaker 1: got the shop just to see if there's an international
Speaker 1: incident created by something somebody says, yeah, to me, the
Speaker 1: most entertaining. And obviously you guys have been awarded, like
Speaker 1: Jack said, you know, congratulations and all the Emmys and accolades.
Speaker 1: But like I said, you kind of have set the
Speaker 1: blueprint to how shells can be ran. You know, like
Speaker 1: you said, there's old school ways of this is my
Speaker 1: way or the highway, or you kind of have the
Speaker 1: input and take the creativity of everyone and you get
Speaker 1: a great product with it. You know, we kind of
Speaker 1: feel like we do similar stuff here where it's just
Speaker 1: not one way, you know, we feel like this will
Speaker 1: be better Jack, like, I want to do it this way,
Speaker 1: or you know, I mean to me, that's where you
Speaker 1: get the best out of everybody, and everyone feels like
Speaker 1: they're a part of the of the success. And not
Speaker 1: every you know, not every idea is going to be great.
Speaker 1: But what are guys are so good at doing is saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's gonna fly, but it's a
Speaker 1: I see where you're going. We'll see. So nobody gets
Speaker 1: their feelings hurt and then clams up and next time says, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to suggest anything now because it got
Speaker 1: shot down because I got you, I get stuff shot
Speaker 1: down to you know what, I say, maybe we can
Speaker 1: do this, and then somebody will say, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's gonna I don't really find that very funny,
Speaker 1: but we could do this, and I say, well, that's
Speaker 1: a better idea. So I think you always have to
Speaker 1: do that. You always have to to step away and
Speaker 1: say what is gonna be the best thing for the show.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why it's worked with us too,
Speaker 1: because Chuck Kenny Shack have never made or tried to
Speaker 1: make the show about them. They've never said, hey, I
Speaker 1: don't have enough air time here, I'm not getting enough FaceTime.
Speaker 1: Everybody just says, what's going to make the show better,
Speaker 1: And that's the team environment. Look started this thing talking
Speaker 1: about the Hawks. That's what you're seeing with them. I'm
Speaker 1: not making this game about me. But if it's gonna
Speaker 1: make our game better and our team better, let's do it.
Speaker 1: So that's what it's about. Three. You're diagnosed with nons
Speaker 1: Hopskins lymphoma um battle through start doing treatment in OH six.
Speaker 1: First of all, what was that experience like for you?
Speaker 1: But then also being vulnerable enough and open enough to
Speaker 1: share with us and and and allow us in with
Speaker 1: your journey. Uh, you know, it's how many people out there.
Speaker 1: I mean I lost my mom to cancer seven. I
Speaker 1: mean you look, you get into any room and ask people.
Speaker 1: And when I speak, I do that too. If I
Speaker 1: when I'm going to talk about this, and just you
Speaker 1: give me a show of hands if your life has
Speaker 1: been touched somehow by that, and it's a close friend,
Speaker 1: or it's a family member, or it's they themselves and
Speaker 1: so um. Yeah, when I got that word, for three years,
Speaker 1: I really didn't have to do anything because you could
Speaker 1: look at me and not see and say nothing's wrong.
Speaker 1: So only a few people knew. Um. But then you know,
Speaker 1: in two thousand six, my limp noo starts swelling up
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, I'm gonna have to tell everybody
Speaker 1: what's going on. And then, um. The thing about cancer is, uh,
Speaker 1: the uncertainty is one thing that really it really gets
Speaker 1: to you because you know something is going on, you
Speaker 1: don't know where this is going to take you. But
Speaker 1: once a doctor tells you, all right, you've got non
Speaker 1: Hodgkins lymphoma, and it's this kind of not Hodgkins lymphoma.
Speaker 1: And you've learned a lot about Oh. I thought there
Speaker 1: was just one. Now there's a bunch of different ones. Uh.
Speaker 1: And here's how we're going to treat it. Then you
Speaker 1: put your head down and go, you know, and then
Speaker 1: you just and you lean on your fai, your faith,
Speaker 1: your family, your friends, and you get through it. Um.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, it's six cycles of chemo there and
Speaker 1: UM went into remission, came back onto air and you know,
Speaker 1: I've been in remission from on Hutchings since two thousand six. UM.
Speaker 1: And then you know, and and here's here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're I am. I had prostate cancer two
Speaker 1: years ago, so I was like, I wasn't done with it.
Speaker 1: You know. It's you know, but the thing that's the
Speaker 1: thing that's different, guys, is that when my wife and
Speaker 1: I sat down with that doctor in two thousand and
Speaker 1: three and got the word that first time, and you
Speaker 1: can't believe the words you're hearing. Uh. And then you
Speaker 1: can't believe that you're in the infusion thing in two
Speaker 1: thousand six and looking at all these folks who have
Speaker 1: cancer and you're all hooked up and you're all doing
Speaker 1: these drips. And then when I got that word, and
Speaker 1: she and I were sitting across from a doctor and
Speaker 1: it was like, we've been here, We've done this, We're
Speaker 1: fixing to do it again. And Mum, for that it
Speaker 1: was it was surgery. It wasn't any kind of chemo,
Speaker 1: but it was it was just like, Okay, well, we're
Speaker 1: gonna do whatever we have to do and we will
Speaker 1: get through this. And and without my faith, I don't.
Speaker 1: You know. Look, I had a pastor who told me,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just like back then when you're kind
Speaker 1: of shaking your fist at God and saying why me,
Speaker 1: you know, why, why is this happening? And he's like, hey, look,
Speaker 1: you trust God. Period. And I mean, I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to turn this into church, but that's the foundation of
Speaker 1: my life. Not I'm gonna trust God if this turns
Speaker 1: out the way I wanted to witness, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: trust God. Period. He's gonna take me someplace through this.
Speaker 1: It's gonna make me a better man. He's gonna He's
Speaker 1: gonna open my eyes to something. And one thing that's
Speaker 1: opened my eyes to in terms of cancer is that
Speaker 1: when you get it, it brings with it an opportunity
Speaker 1: and a responsibility to help the next person through it.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times people have called
Speaker 1: me and said, Hey, I got a buddy is starting
Speaker 1: who's starting chemo? Can you call him or can you
Speaker 1: drop him an email that means to him you don't
Speaker 1: And it's and it's all about hitting the sun button
Speaker 1: or or just getting on the phone. I had. I
Speaker 1: had one of those this week. I just called this guy.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't know I was calling, but a
Speaker 1: friend of his had called and said, hey, he read
Speaker 1: your book and he and he did this, and it
Speaker 1: was like, hey, john how you doing Ernie Johnson? Wow? Really,
Speaker 1: I said, how are we feeling? We're good. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a little scared, you know, it's like, let's talk
Speaker 1: about it. And then you wind up swapping stories for
Speaker 1: twenty minutes and saying, you know you're gonna be You're
Speaker 1: gonna get through this thing. And so people did it
Speaker 1: for me. I'm trying to do it for people. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like there's always gonna be in that club that
Speaker 1: nobody wants to be, you know, that membership. I wish
Speaker 1: that membership would dwindle down to the point where you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to worry about it. But it keeps on
Speaker 1: going and so um every time some new member gets
Speaker 1: in that club and you can call him and say
Speaker 1: it's gonna be okay. You know it's gonna be difficult.
Speaker 1: Maybe at times it's gonna be okay. You're not not
Speaker 1: to the magnitude of what you had to fight through.
Speaker 1: But I gotta message this morning, uh, from Dion Sounders.
Speaker 1: And I'm going through my own transformation with you know,
Speaker 1: I stopped drinking and smoking and everything, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't understand it because we have a show
Speaker 1: called All the Smoke. But I gotta message from him
Speaker 1: this morning. It seemed like you always see me to
Speaker 1: message at the right time, and uh, just to just
Speaker 1: to tell me that the direction I'm going and everybody
Speaker 1: is not mental and keep leaning and stay strong. And
Speaker 1: you need to hear stuff like that sometimes, especially from
Speaker 1: legends like Dion Sounders, because a lot of people on
Speaker 1: the outside might not understand where you come from and
Speaker 1: where you're going. But to hear people who been at
Speaker 1: the top the whole life multi multi sports and who
Speaker 1: he is as a Hall of Fame and one of
Speaker 1: the greats to hear that from him. It gave me
Speaker 1: more inspiration to continue to fighting. B Why I am
Speaker 1: so I understand that I was gonna say to you
Speaker 1: when you when you read that text or you get
Speaker 1: that phone messager, you get that email, and it's like,
Speaker 1: we all need encouragement. You know. People can look out
Speaker 1: there and say, well, this guy's got it all, he
Speaker 1: must have this, you know, and this is still human. Man.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like encouragement. There's nothing. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things that and it hits you right out of the
Speaker 1: blue when it's like, man, that just made my days.
Speaker 1: You know, it's that meant a lot, That meant so
Speaker 1: I can't know's going through now. That's that's tremendous. Man.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that. How did sha how did this
Speaker 1: addition to shack happen? How did that even happen? To
Speaker 1: the big fellow coming around? I think I think everybody look,
Speaker 1: when a big, a larger than life guy like he's
Speaker 1: done playing, everybody wants him, and and a kid at that,
Speaker 1: a big kid at that world's biggest the world's biggest child.
Speaker 1: But if he's gonna be out there and he's gonna
Speaker 1: want to do TV you gotta be crazy not to
Speaker 1: make a run at him, you know, And so everybody
Speaker 1: makes a run at him. But I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there were some growing pains. I mean, I'll be honest, man.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like number one and you're switching careers, okay,
Speaker 1: so nobody expects you to jump from that into this
Speaker 1: seamlessly like okay. But he's you know, he what endeared
Speaker 1: what he looked at with our shows, the fun we
Speaker 1: had you know, check it just happens to be an
Speaker 1: all world basketball player. It wasn't because he's studied every
Speaker 1: player in the game or is this great student of
Speaker 1: of how to how to play and that's that's like,
Speaker 1: he just happens to be really good at that. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't like the breakdown of games that had him saying,
Speaker 1: I like to be on that show. It was that
Speaker 1: some crazy stuff happened on our show and he wanted
Speaker 1: to be a part of that. And so um, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was from the you know, from the jump.
Speaker 1: You know, he'd get on there in that first show
Speaker 1: and said, push up Christmas Tree over on me. We'll
Speaker 1: get you know, a lot of YouTube you know. So, uh,
Speaker 1: he's down for fun. Yeah, man, and we would. And
Speaker 1: you know, it got to the point after the first
Speaker 1: couple of months where he was throwing out all these suggestions.
Speaker 1: You know, you can tease me. I've been to stunt school,
Speaker 1: but I could just picture him staying all this show
Speaker 1: and Kenny and and Kenny was like, Shack, take a
Speaker 1: step back. He said, Patil, We're afraid you're gonna set
Speaker 1: set fire to yourself. And we're not even halfway through.
Speaker 1: Were your first year here? Because I think what he
Speaker 1: had to realize that as a lot of what is
Speaker 1: funny on our show is really organic that happened, you know.
Speaker 1: It's look, Shack didn't mean to break the internet the
Speaker 1: night that he that he told us on on the
Speaker 1: air live that he didn't know that the Warriors played
Speaker 1: in Oakland. Oh Man did And I'm like, we're doing
Speaker 1: the highlight live and I said, we go to Oakland
Speaker 1: for the highlights. And why do you keep saying Oakland?
Speaker 1: I said, because that's where they're playing the game. Man,
Speaker 1: is that where they play? And we just kind of
Speaker 1: like stopped the highlight and for Charles said, how many
Speaker 1: years did you play in the league? And he said,
Speaker 1: and he said, he said you know, I just always thought,
Speaker 1: you know, we stayed in San Francisco. I just thought
Speaker 1: we always played there. I just got on the bus.
Speaker 1: You don't plan that. And and there's nothing in the
Speaker 1: production meeting that says, okay, look in that third segment,
Speaker 1: let's see if Shack knows where the warriors. It just happened.
Speaker 1: It just happened. And so um, he's learned that. There
Speaker 1: are certain times that he's also you know, he's had ideas,
Speaker 1: let's do this because I'd like to, you know, and
Speaker 1: that's great. But most of the time, stuff that people
Speaker 1: find funny just happens on our show because it's just
Speaker 1: you know, it's Kenny turning the wrong way in the
Speaker 1: chair and somebody beating him to the board. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how that stuff all started, now, you know,
Speaker 1: now you pick your spots. Yeah, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I got him here, and if he turns to the
Speaker 1: feat turns to our charld, I'm going But uh no,
Speaker 1: that was I think Shock, you know, eventually grew into
Speaker 1: that role and now he's very comfortable breaking stuff down,
Speaker 1: whether that's on the others or whether it's Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: or whether it's you know, what's him be doing? Why
Speaker 1: is he being good tonight? You know? What do you
Speaker 1: not like? And so? Um, yeah, so now we're just
Speaker 1: the four, but you know, we just do our thing.
Speaker 1: What is it like for you though? Obviously you and
Speaker 1: Kenny initially started bringing Chuck in, bringing Check in. Learning
Speaker 1: everyone in this space now, like you said, it's a
Speaker 1: completely new base for them, So learning them and then
Speaker 1: trying to kind of as you can much as you can,
Speaker 1: kind of control and work people in and out until
Speaker 1: they have their feet underneath them. I think all of
Speaker 1: that comes with reps. And I think and again, the
Speaker 1: more you work with somebody, then you kind of know
Speaker 1: what buttons to push and you know what's and and
Speaker 1: it even it even affects your mind into as you're
Speaker 1: preparing for something, um, and you're preparing for a show
Speaker 1: and you see a number or you read a quote
Speaker 1: and you think, man, when I throw that quote out tonight,
Speaker 1: Charles is going jump on that. And I said, or yeah,
Speaker 1: I throw that. If I throw that number out, Shack's
Speaker 1: gonna or if I throw that out, Kenny's gonna go WHOA. Really,
Speaker 1: So it's kind of knowing those buttons to push and
Speaker 1: and so when when people call me like the traffic
Speaker 1: cop on the show, it's like an insult to a
Speaker 1: really good traffic cop, because when you're really good traffic
Speaker 1: cops are gonna wave this car through, in this car through,
Speaker 1: and this traffic is gonna stop because we don't want
Speaker 1: any fender benders. We don't own anybody, you know. But
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, I know, if I wave shock
Speaker 1: into this intersection right now, Chuck, and it's going to broadside.
Speaker 1: And so that's I'm like this rogue traffic who would
Speaker 1: who would be assigned to desk duty for being so
Speaker 1: damn bad at his job? And so and so I
Speaker 1: think that's what I think. That's where you kind of learn,
Speaker 1: let's let him go here and then and and again.
Speaker 1: It's also just trying to get everybody that touches, So
Speaker 1: you don't want the story of the show to be
Speaker 1: this cookie cutter thing work here. You're always going to
Speaker 1: go to him first, and he's gonna do this. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you're gonna say, shock, I want to hear what you
Speaker 1: think about this. Hey, we just saw that dust up
Speaker 1: there late and a half. You know, do you think
Speaker 1: he did that on purpose or So that's kind of
Speaker 1: my thing is is like make everybody feel like they're
Speaker 1: always involved equally in this thing, and knowing that if
Speaker 1: I bring this up, he's gonna just go crazy crazy
Speaker 1: on this guy. So that's you know, that's kind of
Speaker 1: how that whole dynamic works. How has it been working
Speaker 1: in someone I'm a huge fan of and I know
Speaker 1: once he's done playing, he's gonna be granted. How has
Speaker 1: it been working Draymond? And when he comes on set,
Speaker 1: because he's one of the brightest basketball minds I've ever
Speaker 1: been around. You know what I told him what I
Speaker 1: told him the other day, when I told him the
Speaker 1: other day, because he's yeah. I mean, he's been on
Speaker 1: our show the Arena, you know, talking social issues, and
Speaker 1: he's been he's been with us a few times. I
Speaker 1: told him last time, I said, it must be it
Speaker 1: must be good to be you. He said what I said,
Speaker 1: because I don't know how much longer you're gonna play,
Speaker 1: But as soon as you take those sneaks off the
Speaker 1: next for the last time, you got your pick, you
Speaker 1: can go anywhere you want. I said, you're that good.
Speaker 1: That good? Yeah, And I did. I mean, and again,
Speaker 1: I think people need to hear this, you know, people need,
Speaker 1: you know, in this business. I think think what goes
Speaker 1: on a lot of times is somebody may not be
Speaker 1: doing the greatest possible job they can be doing, but
Speaker 1: they're not getting any input you know. There It's like
Speaker 1: you're out there to sink or swim, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep making the same mistakes. And maybe people
Speaker 1: are just too reverential and not not going to bring
Speaker 1: it up and say, hey, you might want to do this,
Speaker 1: it might make you better. Well, what are you doing
Speaker 1: telling me? For me? I think it's I think it's Look,
Speaker 1: you need to tell people when they're doing great and
Speaker 1: when and I think you need to tell them, you know,
Speaker 1: what you could how you could really be better is
Speaker 1: if you did this, you know, and just and that's
Speaker 1: just my opinion, you know. And but what I told
Speaker 1: I told Dreaman and and he probably already knew it,
Speaker 1: but I told him, I said, you write your ticket.
Speaker 1: You can write your ticket right now. Well, opinion coming
Speaker 1: from you and and and that in that space, that's
Speaker 1: more than opinion. That's that's the best advice you can get.
Speaker 1: But man, I mean he's good. I mean, he speaks
Speaker 1: his mind. He and for him, he just jumped right
Speaker 1: into the of our show too. It's like he's sitting
Speaker 1: in you know, earlier in the playoffs, each of the
Speaker 1: guys took a night off, so we moved from this
Speaker 1: chair to this chair to this chair. And he's great
Speaker 1: in every chair. No, you no, it has great stuff
Speaker 1: to say. And again like Chuck not holding anything back. Hey,
Speaker 1: this out for you, you know. Stand and when Chuck says,
Speaker 1: I like the Bucks to win the whole thing, you know, no,
Speaker 1: I asked, I asked Draymond, So he got coming out
Speaker 1: of the East. He said, seriously, yeah, well Crookland, he said,
Speaker 1: you know when and this is when all three you're
Speaker 1: going to play it again. And and Chuck's like, I
Speaker 1: got the Bucks coming on He's and his just his
Speaker 1: word was just good luck, Chuck, you know. And again
Speaker 1: things change because of what what goes on with injuries
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. Who gets eliminated. But to
Speaker 1: the original point, Draymond Green, yeah, oh yeah, great, shut
Speaker 1: out Draymond. You guys haven't had the unfortunate duty of
Speaker 1: being live on air with the Kobe tragedy. What was
Speaker 1: the emotion like and energy like and how tough was
Speaker 1: it to be able to get through that particular night.
Speaker 1: I've never been in a show like that, I mean,
Speaker 1: in thirty one years. It was the most unique show
Speaker 1: ever ever hosted. And because it was so fresh from
Speaker 1: I mean, it happens Sunday, We're in l A Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and we are in the middle of Staples Center empty
Speaker 1: just to talk about it. Shack hadn't even talked to
Speaker 1: anybody about it at that point. Um, Jerry West is
Speaker 1: on the show. Uh, we just had other voices. I
Speaker 1: think Rick Fox was on that show at some point,
Speaker 1: and it was just you know what, it was one
Speaker 1: of those days where it just told you that job
Speaker 1: we're doing sometimes can can go above and beyond being
Speaker 1: just a basketball show. Because everybody in the country was
Speaker 1: kind of come into grips with how do you deal
Speaker 1: with this? How do we how do we deal with
Speaker 1: these emotions were feeling And for for Shock to be
Speaker 1: sitting there and just pour his heart out, Jerry West
Speaker 1: do the same thing, Chuck Kinny. I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: even put into words how impactful that was for us
Speaker 1: to do it, and just by gauging the reaction of
Speaker 1: people that it helps some people get through it too. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's not to put any self importance on us, like,
Speaker 1: oh look what we It was just it was good
Speaker 1: for us all to talk about it to lock eyes
Speaker 1: and say, yeah, man, it hurts. I hope we never
Speaker 1: have to do another one for me, right, you know,
Speaker 1: just thinking about it right now, and it's still I
Speaker 1: have to even talk about Yeah, I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: Jerry was sitting there, you know, talking about what was
Speaker 1: going through his mind when he decided that he had
Speaker 1: to have Kobe Bryant, you know, and those first few
Speaker 1: years of and how tight they were. You know, the
Speaker 1: tears start coming, and and we're not there to stop him, right,
Speaker 1: We're just there to kind of put a hand on
Speaker 1: his shoulder and say, right, this is what you're doing.
Speaker 1: And and and you know, and you know who gets
Speaker 1: a lot of credit who and you may not know
Speaker 1: this story, you know it gets a lot of credit
Speaker 1: for the way that show came off is the folks,
Speaker 1: you know, like our salespeople. Because we're supposed to do
Speaker 1: like a four or five segment show, our pregame show
Speaker 1: leading up to the game that we're going to show
Speaker 1: that night, and we didn't take a commercial break. Maybe
Speaker 1: we took one and so like our producer Jeremy was
Speaker 1: calling them and saying, I don't think I can cut that,
Speaker 1: we can't stop this, we can't stop this and then
Speaker 1: go to commercial and come back and they said, just
Speaker 1: go wow. And that's and that was one of those
Speaker 1: things where it said, I don't care what this does
Speaker 1: in terms of the sponsors in the bottom line, and
Speaker 1: we value the sponsors and all that stuff, and I
Speaker 1: know they're supposed to get this, but the recognition that
Speaker 1: this is special. Yeah, and we're not going to cut
Speaker 1: somebody off because we've got to get to commercial and
Speaker 1: somebody maybe struggling to get the words out and we
Speaker 1: don't care if they're gonna sit for thirty seconds and
Speaker 1: gather their thoughts. That silence was speaking volumes. Man, It's real.
Speaker 1: It was Oh man, it was quiet. Yeah, I'm pitching
Speaker 1: this show in my mind, and I mean I was
Speaker 1: watching the two and I was going through a tough
Speaker 1: time at that time and even just dealing with it.
Speaker 1: But you write it did help a lot of people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it did help a lot of people. Do you have
Speaker 1: any good in any Kobe stories that come to mind
Speaker 1: while he was here? You know, I just, Um, we
Speaker 1: sat down in his in his last season over holding
Speaker 1: the team hotel, you know, sat down there for a
Speaker 1: half hour just kind of talk, you know, and UM
Speaker 1: did that for a piece. Um. I just I loved
Speaker 1: talking to him because you knew you weren't going to
Speaker 1: get the Spaulding Guide to Interview answers from him that
Speaker 1: that would say, Okay, yeah, just page forty two paragraph
Speaker 1: B that's the answer. He thought. He thought through everything
Speaker 1: you asked. He was such a thoughtful and wise beyond
Speaker 1: his years guy that you always enjoyed talking to him.
Speaker 1: You know. We had him in the studio one night
Speaker 1: after you know, after Chuck had called himselfish, you know,
Speaker 1: during those during a playoff series. He came on, he
Speaker 1: came into Atlanta, came on the set part of the crew,
Speaker 1: and I remember sitting in the green room. We were
Speaker 1: talking about favorite vacation spots and he's talking about places.
Speaker 1: I said, man, I want to want to take my
Speaker 1: wife to Italy, you know, and he's like, oh, here's
Speaker 1: what you gotta do. It was it was that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, and it was it was just his thoughtful way,
Speaker 1: and it was you know, I and I remember when
Speaker 1: I when I finished chemo and I was still bald
Speaker 1: and we're doing Opening Night and his was the last
Speaker 1: voice on a welcome back video that they did for me,
Speaker 1: and he's here said hey, welcome to the brotherhood. I
Speaker 1: was like, man, this is a yes. Absolutely the rest
Speaker 1: in peace to our brother um. Throughout the show, we
Speaker 1: started the show talking about you know you kind of
Speaker 1: piggybacking with your dad and fatherhood. Um, you're a father
Speaker 1: of six to biological four adopted. UM. I find that
Speaker 1: very instnctus in My mom wanted to do was adopt,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately she passed from cancer and oh seven, So
Speaker 1: talk to us about just fatherhood, everything you fought through
Speaker 1: in your personal health life to still be here and
Speaker 1: be the father you are and your children. For your children,
Speaker 1: I mean Sheryl Anne and I are blessed, you know,
Speaker 1: and and she you know, you have a boy and
Speaker 1: a girl. You know, you get married n eighty two,
Speaker 1: you got a boy in eighty four, you got a
Speaker 1: girl in eighty seven, and it's like, okay, we're set, good,
Speaker 1: let's not let's not mess with that. You know, that's
Speaker 1: and that's you know, then the unscripted part of your
Speaker 1: life kind of kicks in because my you know, my
Speaker 1: wife is just this has this wonderful heart. And but
Speaker 1: we know because you talked about it so highly on
Speaker 1: the show. We we we all feel like we know
Speaker 1: your wife. I know, well, I apologize for doing but
Speaker 1: she's like, I come home from work one day and
Speaker 1: she says, you know what we need to do, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, chicken or fish, whatever you feel like, I'll
Speaker 1: eat anything. And she's like, like, we need to go
Speaker 1: to Romania and get one of these kids out of
Speaker 1: an orphanage over there, because she had seen the ABC
Speaker 1: News about these kids just warehoused in this thing and
Speaker 1: you know on their special needs kids, they're being forgotten
Speaker 1: and and so we wind up, you know, she goes,
Speaker 1: I stay here. I'm in Atlanta with our kids who
Speaker 1: were like three and seven at their four and seven
Speaker 1: at the time. Yeah, so I'm taking care of them.
Speaker 1: She's more worried about them than she is about her
Speaker 1: trip to Romania. She's like, man, I'm gonna come home
Speaker 1: and those kids are not gonna have had a vegetable
Speaker 1: two months. Yeah. But yeah, so we had a lot
Speaker 1: of we had a lot of pizza and and uh
Speaker 1: putt putt while she's over there. But she goes over
Speaker 1: there and finds this this little boy who's got all
Speaker 1: these issues and and calls me from Romanian says, I
Speaker 1: don't know of what I can we This boy is
Speaker 1: so much more than we can handle. He's three years old.
Speaker 1: He can't walk, he can't talk, and he said, but
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine going the rest of my life
Speaker 1: wondering what happened to this. I was like, bring him home,
Speaker 1: and he was, you know, he had issues, still does
Speaker 1: I mean? And then he gets diagnosed with muscular dystrophy
Speaker 1: and there's no cure for that. And most of the
Speaker 1: time a lot of times kids don't get out of
Speaker 1: their teams. Got thirty two now, man, But I got
Speaker 1: this thirty two year old miracle at my house and
Speaker 1: and he he's on a ventilator. Um, you know, I
Speaker 1: can't do anything on his own. But he's amazing. And no,
Speaker 1: you know what, God's amazing, you know, but it's you know,
Speaker 1: they'll be adopted. Little girl from Paraguay, Carmen. She's adopted
Speaker 1: two kids out of foster care in Ohio who are
Speaker 1: now but we've you know, it's not because me and
Speaker 1: Sheryl great, and then we don't do this for any
Speaker 1: pats on the back. It's just like everybody, there's value
Speaker 1: and everybody there if you will look for it. There's
Speaker 1: value and everybody and and they all and everybody deserves
Speaker 1: a chance to shine and a chance to be what
Speaker 1: they can be. And so I think that's what has
Speaker 1: always been at the root of our heart for adoption,
Speaker 1: is that let's give somebody a chance, you know that,
Speaker 1: you know, let's give this Romanian kid a chance. That
Speaker 1: he was abandoned in a park when he was born,
Speaker 1: you know, the first time he'd been outside when my
Speaker 1: wife took him outside in that orphanage when he was
Speaker 1: three years old, the first time he was outside since
Speaker 1: he was found in a park. And so I think
Speaker 1: that we've just we've just tried to teach our kids
Speaker 1: and that there's value. Look for the value, don't look
Speaker 1: for the things that that tell you, oh this, you know. Shoot,
Speaker 1: the nurse who brought Michael out to share all the
Speaker 1: first time that they meant said don't take this boy.
Speaker 1: He's no good. M hm. And so we you know,
Speaker 1: this boy who's no good has impacted so many people
Speaker 1: just with his life and so um no, we got it,
Speaker 1: good man. And I got four grand kids now too,
Speaker 1: so Grandpa Poppy's poppy, Poppy Poppy. And my life is good.
Speaker 1: Fellas you know, I get to work with these guys,
Speaker 1: but my life is great. And that's with the cancer,
Speaker 1: that's with all the other stuff, that's with Michael's situation.
Speaker 1: Got a great life. That is good. Quick hitters. Coming
Speaker 1: down to the tell and the first thing actually, before
Speaker 1: we get to that, I wanted to ask the question,
Speaker 1: when did you know that inside the NBA was a
Speaker 1: big deal? Sometimes I think sometimes that comes with you
Speaker 1: just here, just here and talk, you know, just hearing
Speaker 1: people talk, hearing players talk, you know here and you
Speaker 1: know whatever it is, you know, people saying hey, that's
Speaker 1: or sometimes you know it's the being nominated for you know,
Speaker 1: when the Emmy's come up and nominations and some wins,
Speaker 1: and it's like, well maybe we do have something going hunter,
Speaker 1: but you do you never get so carried away with
Speaker 1: it when you're starting that it's like, oh, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: a big deal. I'm on inside the NBA. Well what's
Speaker 1: inside the NBA? Know? I think I think just in
Speaker 1: time it becoming kind of a part of the fabric
Speaker 1: of the n b A and uh, you know, and
Speaker 1: I think I think that it's very humbling to have
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame, you know, create an award, this
Speaker 1: Transformative Media Award that they give to Inside the NBA.
Speaker 1: Because it's been it's become part of the part. But again,
Speaker 1: that doesn't it doesn't happen overnight. And I and I
Speaker 1: to pinpoint the time where I thought, hey, this show
Speaker 1: is something I don't know. I just actually, I mean
Speaker 1: when probably a couple of years into Chuck's tenure. He's
Speaker 1: been there twenty years now, but you know, and that's
Speaker 1: when that's when it started to be like, man, I
Speaker 1: can't get away from people talking about Inside the NBA.
Speaker 1: Then you kind of feel like, yeah, I guess we're
Speaker 1: onto something here. Love it because we weren't getting that
Speaker 1: when I was doing the show by myself. Okay, when
Speaker 1: I was when I was the soul guy doing they're
Speaker 1: doing highlights. It wasn't nobody saying, man, if you've seen
Speaker 1: that show, it looks like every other highlight show, you know.
Speaker 1: But now, but I mean now, thirty thirty years later,
Speaker 1: you're one of the most respected, appreciated voices um on
Speaker 1: the Best show. So I mean, obviously you know you
Speaker 1: are the focal and work with good people. Man, that's
Speaker 1: what it is. You gotta get you step some credit
Speaker 1: and we're not gonna have you on our show and
Speaker 1: you're not getting your steps. I didn't look until you.
Speaker 1: I'm even more in awe of the man that you
Speaker 1: are now at the getting the chance to talk to
Speaker 1: you and know more about you, but out with the
Speaker 1: sizes watching you on TV. So we're gonna give your
Speaker 1: flowers and we appreciate associate you too. And I but
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, when you got a platform like that,
Speaker 1: how are you going to use it? And if you
Speaker 1: if you're you know, and I think enough things come
Speaker 1: up in the course of in the course of doing
Speaker 1: the show for thirty years where you can be you
Speaker 1: and that's you know, whether that's dealing with Craig Sager's situation,
Speaker 1: whether that's dealing with you know, the cancer and that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Um, there are enough things that come up,
Speaker 1: whether that's dealing with Kobe, whether it's dealing with the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Um that people will see who you really are in
Speaker 1: times like that where they don't see it when you're
Speaker 1: just saying, hey, there's a three. Hey, there's a three.
Speaker 1: Look at that dunk? Hey, what do you mean? Shack hey, Charles,
Speaker 1: stop it. You know, there are enough things that are
Speaker 1: real light. And that's yeah, a lot of selves run
Speaker 1: from that. There, a lot of I was run from
Speaker 1: what's really going on. I know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And to be one of the top spots shows and
Speaker 1: to tackle all that that says a lot. I love it.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll put you on the hot seat. First
Speaker 1: thing to come to mind, let us know five best
Speaker 1: single season teams you've personally seen, Five best single season teams. Uh,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be in any particular or okay,
Speaker 1: you know, seventy three win Warrior, seventy two win Bowls.
Speaker 1: I think that that San Antonio team that came back
Speaker 1: and beat Miami in the finals was yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: after losing it, then they come back and they just
Speaker 1: throttled him and it was like a clinic. And I'll
Speaker 1: go back to those early those early season or early
Speaker 1: seventies Hawks teams where I got to watch Pete. That'll
Speaker 1: be in there. Um, But that's just that's from a
Speaker 1: just personal Yeah, that's but the Golden State teams were
Speaker 1: really fun to watch down one ten seconds ago. Well,
Speaker 1: you're top five that you ever saw to get a bucket. Mmm,
Speaker 1: You've seen a lot of basket but I mean I
Speaker 1: think I think you put like you put Kobe and
Speaker 1: Michael in there, and you maybe want to put Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas in there, and he gonna go get it. He's
Speaker 1: gonna go get it. Man. I hate questions like this
Speaker 1: because I know, because I know you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying to say, Man, how could you not say this?
Speaker 1: And because that's the way it is these days. Anytime
Speaker 1: anybody ranks anything and it said, how could you not
Speaker 1: say this? Guy? Um, But I'll just give you I'll
Speaker 1: throw those three out at you at this point. I
Speaker 1: like it. It's nice. I'll take those three though any day.
Speaker 1: Top two most memorable events you've covered sports or non
Speaker 1: sports mm hmm, that I've covered or that I've been at.
Speaker 1: Either been a part of Okay, so I was sitting
Speaker 1: there and Hank Aaron had seven so that was cool
Speaker 1: in Atlanta Atlanta Stadium, so that would be in there. Um,
Speaker 1: And another one would be watching Jack Nicholas. I was,
Speaker 1: I was at the mike when Jack Nicholas played his
Speaker 1: final hole at St. Andrews and his final major at
Speaker 1: the at the British show. This this episode in Jim Grayobs, So, man,
Speaker 1: I don't don't know Jim Gray's Jim Gray willow so
Speaker 1: many moments where he was at you know, he's there
Speaker 1: when guys get getting punched or getting their ear bit
Speaker 1: and all kind of stuff. But he's But but that
Speaker 1: was that was that Jack Nicholas moment was was incredible
Speaker 1: because that's in the birthplace of golf and that's like
Speaker 1: everybody in the town had come out by the end
Speaker 1: of the day. And uh, but there are a lot
Speaker 1: of good ones. But but I'll say this, working working
Speaker 1: baseball with my dad will be the greatest thing that
Speaker 1: nothing will surpass that calling games with him. And he
Speaker 1: was sitting shoulder and shoulder calling games with your dad,
Speaker 1: I mean, and saying that I want to question this
Speaker 1: is not on the list, but I wanted to know
Speaker 1: since he bought. If it's not on the list, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to answer. And I'm sorry. What kind of
Speaker 1: person was Hank Aaron? You got to know him personally, kind, gracious, humble,
Speaker 1: um and a gentleman and and and again, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're sitting in the dugout hours before a game
Speaker 1: and he's coming by and asking you how your little
Speaker 1: league team is doing, You're like, hold on, just a second,
Speaker 1: was really happening. But I also went to high school
Speaker 1: with his sons, Henry and Larry, and everybody just says
Speaker 1: the same thing. You know, he felt totally comfortable coming
Speaker 1: to a ballgame sitting in the stands, you know, And
Speaker 1: and it was he was he was a you know,
Speaker 1: one of the all time greats, and and didn't do
Speaker 1: it for the fan. Fair didn't do it. You know,
Speaker 1: my dad one of my dad's greatest comparisons when back
Speaker 1: when William Mays and Hank Aaron were, you know, these
Speaker 1: two stalwarts and these two foundations of the baseball and
Speaker 1: people would say, well, you know, Mayze is better than Aaron,
Speaker 1: and my dad would say, Aaron can do everything Maze
Speaker 1: does is but his hat doesn't fall off. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like like there was never there was never this
Speaker 1: showmanship by on Henry's part. There was never you know,
Speaker 1: he just had these incredibly sharp reflexes and these incredible
Speaker 1: this incredible power in his wrists where he wasn't hitting
Speaker 1: five foot home runs. He's just hitting home runs left
Speaker 1: the ballpark before you knew what was happening. So and no,
Speaker 1: he was just to be able to to be able
Speaker 1: to have that relationship and to be able to call him.
Speaker 1: You know, when my dad retired, I was putting a
Speaker 1: video together and I said, I need Hank on this
Speaker 1: video to talk about, you know, playing with my dad. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, and then you know, having my dad called
Speaker 1: so many of his games, and Hank just meets me
Speaker 1: down at Atlanta Stadium. We sit there and do an
Speaker 1: interview and talking. He's just a good He was just special,
Speaker 1: especially all right back to the quick hitters, five dinner guests,
Speaker 1: debt or alive, five years against that are alive or five? Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: my dad's there. You know. One of my favorite people
Speaker 1: in the world is in living here in Atlanta's Andrew Young.
Speaker 1: I would love to have, love to have him be
Speaker 1: part of that. UM. Mr Pete would be fun to
Speaker 1: have there, UM And I think that probably UM. I
Speaker 1: would like to all right, would like to have the
Speaker 1: apostle Paul uh and just to hear about that journey
Speaker 1: and that walk and how that all happened, and and
Speaker 1: so how many is that four? That's four? Abe Lincoln
Speaker 1: nice like that. I last question to finish up five, Yes,
Speaker 1: ask questions to finish up. Who do you want to
Speaker 1: see on All the Smoke? You have to end all
Speaker 1: that before you ask him. You have to help us
Speaker 1: get your answer on the show. Oh so it has
Speaker 1: to be somebody that I helped you. Ah, that's see
Speaker 1: sits here far left sometimes are actually all the time,
Speaker 1: Shane sports figure or anything, anybody whoever you do. Um,
Speaker 1: you know who you should have on your show. P
Speaker 1: J Morton, you should have on your show. P J
Speaker 1: Morton keys for Maroon five yea and as one Grammys
Speaker 1: like the last two or three years and is one
Speaker 1: of the coolest dudes out there talking talk music, talk
Speaker 1: life with them. We're coming for you, t J. I'll
Speaker 1: help here you go. We appreciate that. I will make
Speaker 1: it happen. Thank you Ernie again. We want to thank
Speaker 1: you obviously give you your props again. You're someone that's
Speaker 1: you know, as players, we don't respect many voices for
Speaker 1: people who haven't actually done what we've done, and you
Speaker 1: are at the top of the list as far as
Speaker 1: players go. Respect and appreciating the advice you give and
Speaker 1: the way you lead and the way you help so
Speaker 1: many people. Man, So we just want to make sure
Speaker 1: we thank you for coming on the show today, but
Speaker 1: also for everything you do that you might not even
Speaker 1: realize you being you helps everyone else with So I
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Appreciate very much, man. I appreciate you asking
Speaker 1: and having me on. We got a good absolutely, Well,
Speaker 1: that's a wrap. The great Ernie Johnson. Uh, your throwing
Speaker 1: that word around the legend there was any adjective legend.
Speaker 1: We know what you mean us. You can catch us
Speaker 1: on Showtime Basketball, YouTube and I at Heart platform Black Effects.
Speaker 1: We'll see you all next week. This is all a smoke,
Speaker 1: a production of The Black Effect and Our Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with Showtime